Antidote Games: The Accused

Open Law Lab - ANtidote Games

Thanks to Nikki for writing in to let me know about Antidote Games, a studio that produces complex interactive games, to build understanding & knowledge among the players. Some of their games concern health crises, disaster risk, and car safety.

The studio also has one regarding law — The Accused.

It’s a straightforward role-playing game — you are thrown into a situation, and then come across police & others who are investigating a crime.  You’re in the middle of the criminal justice system & have to navigate the investigation and law

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The studio’s pitch for The Accused:

Accused is a browser-based game created in collaboration with the Innocence Project. The police call you in to help solve the crime of a brutal break-in at a neighbor’s apartment. Beware; everything isn’t as it seems.

Accused’s gameplay is based on widespread interrogation techniques of psychological coercion that leads to false confessions. According to the Innocence Project, false confessions may be the single leading cause of wrongful convictions in homicide cases. More than two-thirds of the DNA-cleared homicide cases documented by the Innocence Project were caused by false confessions.

Why would anyone confess to a crime they didn’t commit? Once you’ve been accused, you’ll know.

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